The Fanfiction Dictionaries
by huntress-callisto
Summary: Ever wondered what R&R is?  Or what really DEFINES a MarySue?  Look no further.  A comprehensive dictionary complete with terms for specific fandoms.
1. Universal terms

The Fanfic Dictionaries

Welcome one and all to the Fanfic Dictionaries by huntress-callisto! Here is where I define all the slang terms used in the fanfiction world for newbies. Also contained is information on Mary-sues (including a definition of that term, and ways to tell if a story is likely a Mary-sue by the title and definition), and terms specific to certain fandoms. Please review and tell me terms you would like to have in here, or if I have misdefined a term.

Canon: a term used to describe the original text/movie/show etc. that the fanfic is based on

Cross-over: a story where characters from one canon find themselves in another

Disclaimers: a short section of a story, usually at the top, where a fanfic author explains that they do not know canon. Random characters are sometimes used in an attept to make these funny. Some are more successful than others

Fandom: short for fanfiction kingdom. An area of fanfiction written about a specific canon

Fanfic: Short for fanfiction

Fanfiction: a story written by someone, that takes place in a world written by someone else and published

Gary-Stu: a far rarer form of Mary-Sues, a Gary-stu is male instead of female

HP: Harry Potter

LotR: Lord of the Rings

Lust-object: a character (usually from canon) that a Mary-sue or Gary-stu are, well, lusting after

Mary-Sue: an annoyingly perfect female character that was not in canon. See chapter 2 for more information

Mpreg: male pregnancy. Written in only by those who have no respect for biological sciences

OC: Other character. Used to describe a character that was not in canon. Also defined as 'original character'. For the difference between OCs and Mary-Sues, see chapter 2 or my profile

Pairing: Romance between characters in the story.

PotC: Pirates of the Carribean

R&R: short for read and review. Stressed very highly by many authors. Alternative forms 'read and review' 'PLZ R&R' (note that people who spell please with three letters and no vowels are found to be far more likely to have a story full of typos) and the ever favorite 'REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!'. Other variants may include swear words or treats offered to reviewers

Slash: same-sex relationships of a sexual nature


	2. MARYSUES GALORE

Welcome to the second chapter of the Fanfiction Dictionaries! Here we will discuss the ever-annoying Mary-Sues, how they differ from the OC, and clues as to whether the story is a MS or not by the title.

A Mary-Sue. The most dreaded entity in all fanfiction. They defile poor, innocent canons with bad descriptions, clichéd metaphors and the occasional typo. Or more.

Here are some examples of Mary-Sues. Note that these examples are slightly overdone, to show the type, but not ridiculously so. MSs can be pretty strange.

_Mae Tara Ceridwen climbed aboard her ship, the Emerald Temptress. Her glowing red hair flew in the wind behind her flawless smooth face as she gave her crew the signal to sail away from Tortuga. The sadness in her violet eyes was evident as she looked back at the place she had left, as well as her heart. She fingered the magical medallion she kept with her at all times. She had connected it with him, and it would show her the location of her love at all times. Love that she held. Of Jack Sparrow. _

_Norrington stared down at the beauty in complete astonishment. How could someone so delicate, so lovely be the sister of Jack Sparrow? Yet it was true. Her dark eyes, luminous as the richest cocoa, her skin so soft and fair, her pink lips…The resemblance was there. I love her he thought…Yet I must hate her…. She will rip my heart in two I thought….._

NOW, to ANALYSIS!!!! These paragraphs show some points typical of the MS.

Bad metaphors ('luminous as the richest cocoa'?)

Impossible features ('violet eyes'?)

Sentences that make no sense ('she looked back at the place she had left, as well as her heart'?)

Viewpoint changes (from narrator to Norrington in the 2nd paragraph)

Being the sister of an important character

Being the lost love of an important character

Sentence fragments ('Love that she held. Of Jack Sparrow'?)

Magical jewelry

Other points that one can look for:

Long-lost daughter of an important character

Abused

Came from modern times (some of these are good, some are bad, most are MSs)

Even worst are the stories that look like this:

_so i woke up, and I was lying in the dirt, and I was like, OMG??? where am i??? and tehn I say i was wearing this cool outfit with, like, a sword and everything. and then I saw my BFF next to me and she was wearing this cool dress and I said jade!!!1!! we're not at home, and she woke up, and we were talking about how cool this was when all these solders came and tried to take us……_

You get the idea.

Appearances:

Now, since a Mary-Sue is so perfect she can't be content with just normal colored eyes or hair. So her hair is often very long, shiny, and never gets tangled. Her eyes often are very weird or change color a lot, and I'll be darned if I've ever seen one with brown eyes. Oh, and no spots (or pimples, zits, whatever you want to call them). They can stand out in the sun all day and never get freckles, sunburns, or, unfortunately, skin cancer.

Appearance combinations that are common among MSs:

Red hair, flawless skin, green or violet eyes.

Blond hair, flawless skin, blue or green or gray eyes (this one isn't that weird, it's just when they've got a name like Lyra Teresa Montenegra and can swordfight perfectly and drink more than Jack Sparrow while they're only 13 that it gets to be ridiculous).

A perfect body. But not any reasonably good body. It has to be perfect. A MS won't content herself with the body of a track runner or a ballerina. It also has to have tiny feet (yet they STILL don't tip over, it's creepy) no calluses even though they swordfight all the time, and a huge chest. C'est imposible, and I don't even speak French.

A MS will, of course, always fall in love with one of the main characters. They will, of course, love them back, despite that this girl could drive you to suicide with her annoying perfection. Some stories will throw in angst or suffering to try to convince you that their character isn't a MS. If their character actually has a personality, it sometimes works. Other times it's just cheesy.

OCs that aren't MSs are much easier to stand. They don't try to convince everyone that they are right every two seconds, they don't have a perfect appearance, they don't try to mess with canon too much. They usually bring some talent to the story, but they aren't stupid, or heroic, or anything. If a non-MS modern-day-girl in Pirate times had a girl from 2007 faced with a pirate, she would probably run in the other direction. COMMON SENSE is key. MSs drop it somewhere in the description of their first outfit.

MSs are often rather easy to turn into OCs. They just have to become a character, instead of a fantasy of the Author made solid. The thing you have to remember is that the story needs to be about the character, what they think, feel, experience, instead of being about the MS saving the world.

How to tell if a story is a Mary-Sue or not by the outside:

Lots of typos or chatspeak. This doesn't mean the story is going to be a MS, but if there are typos in the description, there will be typos in the story.

Pairing designations that are very long (i.e. JSOC WTOC JNOC CBOC DJOC HBOC, for one story) If you don't know what those terms mean, don't worry, they'll be explained next chapter


	3. POTC only

Here are terms specific to Pirates of the Caribbean fanfiction:

AWE: At Worlds' End

-beth: Suffix, used to denote that Elizabeth Swann is in a romance in a story (i.e. Willabeth, Sparrabeth, Norribeth, etc.)

Barbossabeth: I think you can guess…

CB: Cutler Beckett. Used for designating pairings

CotBP: Curse of the Black Pearl

DJ: Davy Jones. Used for designating pairings

DMC: Dead Man's Chest

JE: Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann romance

JN: James Norrington. Used for designating pairings (Also written 'N')

JS: Jack Sparrow. Used for designating pairings (Also written 'J')

NE: James Norrington/Elizabeth Swann romance

Norribeth: James Norrington/Elizabeth Swann romance

Sparrabeth: Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann romance

WE: Will Turner/ Elizabeth Swann romance

Willabeth: Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann romance

WT: Will Turner. Used for designating pairings (Also written 'W')

If you have anything you would like me to add, review.


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